diff --git a/src/calibre/utils/icu.c b/src/calibre/utils/icu.c
index b5f0ec0169..b5805bd4e1 100644
--- a/src/calibre/utils/icu.c
+++ b/src/calibre/utils/icu.c
@@ -255,6 +255,36 @@ icu_Collator_contractions(icu_Collator *self, PyObject *args, PyObject *kwargs)
     return Py_BuildValue("O", ans);
 } // }}}
 
+// Collator.span_contractions {{{
+static PyObject *
+icu_Collator_span_contractions(icu_Collator *self, PyObject *args, PyObject *kwargs) {
+    int span_type;
+    UErrorCode status = U_ZERO_ERROR;
+    PyObject *str;
+    size_t slen = 0;
+    wchar_t *buf;
+    UChar *s;
+
+    if (!PyArg_ParseTuple(args, "Ui", &str, &span_type)) return NULL;
+
+    if (self->contractions == NULL) {
+        self->contractions = uset_open(1, 0);
+        if (self->contractions == NULL) return PyErr_NoMemory();
+        ucol_getContractionsAndExpansions(self->collator, self->contractions, NULL, 0, &status);
+    }
+    status = U_ZERO_ERROR; 
+
+    slen = PyUnicode_GetSize(str);
+    buf = (wchar_t*)calloc(slen*4 + 2, sizeof(wchar_t));
+    s = (UChar*)calloc(slen*4 + 2, sizeof(UChar));
+    if (buf == NULL || s == NULL) return PyErr_NoMemory();
+    slen = PyUnicode_AsWideChar((PyUnicodeObject*)str, buf, slen);
+    u_strFromWCS(s, slen*4+1, NULL, buf, slen, &status);
+
+    free(buf); free(s);
+    return Py_BuildValue("i", uset_span(self->contractions, s, slen, span_type));
+} // }}}
+
 static PyMethodDef icu_Collator_methods[] = {
     {"sort_key", (PyCFunction)icu_Collator_sort_key, METH_VARARGS,
      "sort_key(unicode object) -> Return a sort key for the given object as a bytestring. The idea is that these bytestring will sort using the builtin cmp function, just like the original unicode strings would sort in the current locale with ICU."
@@ -271,6 +301,11 @@ static PyMethodDef icu_Collator_methods[] = {
     {"contractions", (PyCFunction)icu_Collator_contractions, METH_VARARGS,
         "contractions() -> returns the contractions defined for this collator."
     },
+
+    {"span_contractions", (PyCFunction)icu_Collator_span_contractions, METH_VARARGS,
+        "span_contractions(src, span_condition) -> returns the length of the initial substring according to span_condition in the set of contractions for this collator. Returns 0 if src does not fit the span_condition. The span_condition can be one of USET_SPAN_NOT_CONTAINED, USET_SPAN_CONTAINED, USET_SPAN_SIMPLE."
+    },
+
     {NULL}  /* Sentinel */
 };
 
@@ -527,6 +562,9 @@ initicu(void)
     PyModule_AddObject(m, "Collator", (PyObject *)&icu_CollatorType);
     // uint8_t must be the same size as char
     PyModule_AddIntConstant(m, "ok", (U_SUCCESS(status) && sizeof(uint8_t) == sizeof(char)) ? 1 : 0);
+    PyModule_AddIntConstant(m, "USET_SPAN_NOT_CONTAINED", USET_SPAN_NOT_CONTAINED);
+    PyModule_AddIntConstant(m, "USET_SPAN_CONTAINED", USET_SPAN_CONTAINED);
+    PyModule_AddIntConstant(m, "USET_SPAN_SIMPLE", USET_SPAN_SIMPLE);
 
 }
 // }}}
diff --git a/src/calibre/utils/icu.py b/src/calibre/utils/icu.py
index 95751d02b7..ead820f066 100644
--- a/src/calibre/utils/icu.py
+++ b/src/calibre/utils/icu.py
@@ -104,6 +104,20 @@ def icu_contractions(collator):
         _cmap[collator] = ans
     return ans
 
+def py_span_contractions(*args, **kwargs):
+    return 0
+
+def icu_span_contractions(src, span_type=None, collator=None):
+    global _collator
+    if collator is None:
+        collator = _collator
+    if span_type is None:
+        span_type = _icu.USET_SPAN_SIMPLE
+    try:
+        return collator.span_contractions(src, span_type)
+    except TypeError:
+        return collator.span_contractions(unicode(src), span_type)
+
 load_icu()
 load_collator()
 _icu_not_ok = _icu is None or _collator is None
@@ -144,6 +158,9 @@ find = (py_find if _icu_not_ok else partial(icu_find, _collator))
 contractions = ((lambda : {}) if _icu_not_ok else (partial(icu_contractions,
     _collator)))
 
+span_contractions = (py_span_contractions if _icu_not_ok else
+        icu_span_contractions)
+
 ################################################################################
 
 def test(): # {{{